Safety device.



F. C. FURLOW. SAFETY DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3, 1915.

A77 IVEY Patented N 0V. 28, 1916.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FLOYD C. FURLOW, OE MGNTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY.

' sarnrv pnvrcn To all whom it may concern Beit known that L'FLoYo C. FURLow, a citizen of. the United States, residing in Montclair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Safety Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to safety appliances for passenger push-button elevators, and is directed more particularly to a safety ap pliance for preventing accidents at the ledge or sill at the hatchway or floor openings of a passenger operated pushv button elevator.

While the invention may have a general application, it .is particularly adapted to the ledge or sill at the hatchway openings of an automatic electrically controlled push button passenger elevator in which the car is without the usual attendant and is operated by the passenger.

Tn elevators of this type it is the usual practice to provide each hatchway door, as

well as the gate in the car, with contacts which include .a controlling circuit of the elevator, so that the car gate and all of the hatchway doors must be in closed position before the car will respond to the pressing of a button. In some elevators of thischaracter the conditions may be such that it is desirable to locate the hatchway doors at some distance from the/ hatchway, so that the door may be flush with the wall of the hall .or room into which the elevator hatchway opens, thereby leaving a substantial space or sill between the elevator car and the doors, and this space may he wide enough to permit a person to: stand thereon even when the car gate and hatchway door are both closed. Under this condition it becomes possible in present elevator installations for a passenger to leave the car at a floor landing and close the car gate before the landing door isopened and, since the car gate and door contacts are both closed. the car may be called away from the floor leaving the passenger standing on the sill and unable to open the door, since a'door is automatically unlocked only when the car The possibility of this occurrence is most undesirable since the passenger so situated cannot move away from his dangerous position and is liable to beinjured. 1

The safety contacts usually 7 associated with the car gate are troublesome and therefore objectionable for the reason that it fre- Specification of Letters i atent.

Patented Nov. 28,1916.

Application filed r truar e, 1915. Serial No. 5,826. 7

quently happens that apassenger leaving the car neglects to close the car gate behind him and consequently the car cannot then be operated from any of the push buttons unless and until the car gate first be closed. Inthis event, if the car be at one floor landing, and a person at another floor desires to use the car, he cannot call the car to his floor but must use the stairway to reach the car and then close the car gate.

By reason of my invention I am enabled not only to overcome the aforesaid objectionable features in a simple, practical and efficient manner, but also further to safeguard passengers from the possibility of accident.

The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of my invention in which- Figure 1 is a sectional view in elevation of a movable door-sill plate and associated switch. 2 is a side section of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 isa plan View. Fig. a is a wiring plan showing asimple system of electrical circuits.

Like reference characters denote similar parts throughout all of the figures.

car, so as to leave a substantial space or sill 4 therebetween. lhis space is provided with a plate or tread '{lwhich covers the greater part of the space and is *connected at one end to a stationary'plate or support 5 by a hinge 6. The sill beneath the plate 4: is recessed so as to form a hollow space 7, and the other end of the plate is supported by a leaf or other spring 8, the arrangement being such that the hinged plate and sill form a smooth unbroken surface. I also provide stops 9-9 for limiting the downward movement of the plate when subjected to the weight of a person. (Jo-acting with movable plate 4 is a normally closed electric switch comprisinga two arm lever '10 pivoted to a bracket 11 fixed to a suitable part of the door casing. One arm of this lever extends under the'movable plate 4, and in close'proximity thereto, while the other arm carries one of a pair of spring pressed insulated contacts 12, the other contact being carried by a support 13.

substantially all of the space between the car gate and hatchway landing door, it is obvious that a passenger in entering or leaving the car must of necessity step upon the plate and in so doing the plate is depressed against the action of the spring 8 and the contacts 12 are carried out of electrical engagement with each other.

The arrangement of the device just described in connection with a push button operated elevator may readily be seen in Fig. 4, in which is represented diagrammatically a simple form of electrically controlled passenger push button elevator adapted to serve three floors, the car being shown at rest at the second floor landing. In this figure each door at a floor landing is provided with a door contact 14 which are connected up in series with each other and in series with the contact 12 of each floor plate 4. Each floor landing has a push button 15, while the car is provided with a plurality of buttons 16 in number corresponding to the number of floor landings. The fioor of the car comprises a hinged platform 17 which is maintained in'horizontal position as shown by a spring 18 when the car is unoccupied, and is depressed against a stop or stops 19 when a passenger enters or occupies the car. Contacts 20 are associated with the car platform 17, and these contacts are always in electrical engagement with each other when the car is empty, but are separated from each other when the weight of a person is brought to bear on the platform. The controlling system further comprises fioor relays 21, 22 and 23, a floor controller 24, motor reversin switches 25 and 26, a hoisting motor having an armature'and field 27 and 28, respectively, and an automatic device 29 for controlling the" motor starting resistance 30. The characters and designate any suitable source of electrical supply.

The operation of the system may be pointed out as follows: By pressing one of the buttons at a floor landing, say for example the uppermost floor button 15, the car will automatically start upwardly and come to rest at the desired upper floor. The operating or controlling circuit may be traced from the main to wire 38, to and through all of the contacts of the floor plates 4 and door contacts 14 in series, through the magnet winding of relay 23, wire 33, through the upper push button 15, by wire 34 through the contacts 20 of the car platform switch, and by the wire 35 and contacts 32 to the main. The relay 23 is thereupon energized to close its contacts thereby establishing a circuit through the floor controller and magnet of reversing switch 25,

this latter circuit being self-holding and in parallel to the circuit including the push button, car platform-contacts 20 and controller moves under the contact 37, thereby"- interrupting the circuit to the magnet of the reversing switch 25 and the latter drops its contacts to open the motor circuit to stop the car with the car platform level with the ledge or sill of the floor landing.

The operation of the system from one of the buttons in the car is similar to that just described with the exception that the circuit closed by a car push button does not include the contacts 20 of the car platform. If a passenger desires the car to descend to a lower floor, he presses one of the buttons 15 or 16 in the car or at a floor landing, respectively, corresponding to the floor to which it is desired the car shall go and the corresponding floor relay 21 or 22 will operate to close a circuit through the floor controller to the down reversing switch .26

' to effect the movement of the car ina downward direction until it reaches the ledge or sill of the desired floor landing where it will automatically stop.

In reviewing the operation, it will be observed that the feed wire 35 common to all of the push buttons 15 and 16, is open cir cuited at the contacts 32 almost at the same time that the motor circuit is closed, so that there can be no interference from any of the buttons after the car has started. It will be observed further that if there be a passenger in the car, one cannot operate the elevator from a floor push button, since at such time the contacts 20 of the car platform will be separated, and hence the wire 34 which is a common feed to all of the floor buttons is open-circuited or dead.

It remains now to consider the operation of the safety floor plates at each floor land- ,ing. By reason of the electrical connecmatically stops at the floor to which it was called. The door of the landing which heretofore was locked may now be opened and the passenger steps upon the sill safety plate and closes the door behind The car cannot, as yet, be operated from any point notwithstanding the door contacts are closed, because the weight of the passenger on the floor safety plate has opened the operatmg circuit at the contacts 12. As soon as the passenger steps within the car and removes all of his weight from the plate, the latter closes its contacts and restores the control of the car to the, car buttons 16, but at the same time the car platform opens its contacts 20 and prevents any operation from any of the floor buttons. The passenger may now press a car button 16 and go to any desired floor. When the floor isreaohed he steps upon the ledge or sill safety plate at that particular floor and all of the buttons at once become dead so that under no-conditions. can the car be moved, until the passenger first opens the landing door and, stepping through, closes the doorbehind him. While it may be desirable in some cases to provide the car with a gate or other closure, which shall be closedby a passenger, both after entering or leaving the car, the same is not necessary in an elevator, equipped wit? my invention and may be dispensed wit From the foregoing it will be seen that under no conditions is it possible for the push button passenger controlled car to be operated while a passenger occupies the space between the car and landing door, and this feature of my invention is one of great practical value in that it absolutel does away with any possibility of an acci cut to a user of a push button passenger controlled elevator-in which there is any substantial space between the car and a landing door, a con dition which frequently exists in push button passenger controlled elevator practice.

The invention may be applied to any type of electrically controlled push button passenger controlled elevator and is not in any way confined to an automatic push button passenger controlled electric elevator such as herein described.

I desire not to be limited to the precise arrangement and construction of parts herein disclosed, since it is obvious that one skilled in the art could readily make changes therein without departing from the conception, spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim is 1. In a push button passenger controlled elevator, the combination of a car, a landing, a standing ledge extending between the landing and the car, and means automatically operable by the exit of a passenger from the car to the ledge, to prevent the car from being moved away from the ledge.

52. In an elevator, the combination of a car, an electrical controlling circuit therefor, a door at a floor landing, a standing sill on the landing between the door and car, a spring pressed safety foot plate or tread movable with respect to the sill, normally closed contacts in said car-controlling circuit, and means operative by the weight of the passenger upon stepping upon the safety plate to depress the plate or tread to cause the said contacts to open to prevent the car from being moved away from the sill.

3. The combination with a push button passenger elevator, of a car, an electrical controlling circuit therefor, a door at a floor landing, a standing ledge or sill at the floor landing betwen the car and door at the floor landing; a spring pressed plate in the ledge flush with the sill of said door adapted to be" t-rod upon by a passenger and depressed by.

his weight to open a switch, a stop to limit the depression of said plate, and switches in said controlling circuit controlled by said plate and door, respectively, to prevent the car from being moved away from the ledge or sill if the door be open or a passenger remain standing on the plate.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FLOYD Witnesses:

' WALTER C. STRANG,

J AMES G. BETHELL.

o. FURLOW. 

